


Guapo's funeral

by TerresDeBrume



Category: Will & Grace
Genre: Gen, Pet Names, Pet funeral, Vulnerability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22374901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: Guapo dies, and Jack shares a secret.
Relationships: Jack McFarland & Guapo, Jack McFarland/Will Truman
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Guapo's funeral

**Author's Note:**

> Because parrots can live an insanely long time so aside from an unfortunate accident, there's no reason Guapo wouldn't live through the original run.

“Oh, honey,” Karen says, reading Jack’s card over his shoulder, “it’s okay. I can tell the story.”

  
Jack, eyes still caught on the tiny hole in the ground, doesn’t have enough strength to answer. Luckily for him, Karen is enough of a trooper to keep going anyway.

  
“They’ve been through everything together,” she tells everyone in the softest voice she has. “When Steve dumped Jack, Guapo was there. When Raul dumped Jack, Guapo was there. Mike, Dan, Tom… Guapo, Guapo, Guapo… There—”

“I told Will I loved him, back in college,” Jack interrupts.

“What the—” Grace starts, but Karen shrieks over the end of her sentence.

  
Jack leans into the way Will’s fingers tighten in the dip of his clavicle—not because of the pain, even. It’s just that it’s comforting, and nowadays he’s allowed to.

  
“He called me a family pet—”

“What?” Grace shouts again. “You never told me about this! When did that happen?”

“Honey, come on”, Karen protests, “there’s no way any of this happened outside of Wilma’s fevered dreams!”

“Right, yeah, that probably explains why we’re real-life practically married!” Will shouts back.

  
His arm tightens around Jack’s shoulder hard enough to send his face crashing into the armpit of Will’s cashmere turtleneck. Jack has to flail a little before he can get out of the stranglehold—damn Will for actually listening when Jack complained he wanted to be carried around again—and by the time he manages it the other three have escalated to a full-blown shouting match in the pet cemetery. Worse, they’ve forgotten about Jack and that will simply not do.

  
“Hey,” he says, then when they don’t react: “HEY!”

  
They twirl around to stare at him. Will, at least, has the good grace—heh—to look at least a little guilty, instead of confused and irritated like Grace and Karen. Jack glares at the three of them all the same, though.

  
“I’m trying to have an open, vulnerable moment here!”

  
They try to speak, but one quick closing of his fingers is enough to silence them. On the one hand, it’s good to know he can still command their respect despite the poor state he’s in. On the other had, now he has to actually go through his Moment, and it’s a much harder endeavor without the help of impulse.

  
“So, ItoldWillIwasinlovewithim, and after he broke my heart—”

“What?” Will exclaims, arm freezing in the middle of trying to hug Jack again, “but you said—”

“Will! This is not about you!”

“Sorry,” Will says with a face that means Jack had better brace himself for a Conversation about this in the near future. “So, after I uh, rejected you...what happened exactly? I remember you running off to the frozen food section and then—”

“Then you ran into Grace and forgot all about me,” Jack cuts in with an impatient flick of the wrist. “I know, story of my life. The point is, I needed to fill the void in my heart with something, so I decided to get myself a puppy. I went to the nearest shelter, thinking I’d be in and out faster than a high fashion trend, when I saw this poor, depressed rescue bird perched on the front desk. I thought ‘that’s perfect! I’ll train it to go up to Will’s window and whisper ‘I love Jack McFarland’ into his ear until it takes root and he falls in my arms!’”

“That sounds a little—”

“Not! About! You!” Jack screeches.

  
He doesn’t get out from under Will’s arm, because he does actually need the comfort, but there are limits that shouldn’t be crossed, for Cher’s sake!

  
“It doesn’t really matter, anyway,” Jack concludes with a heavy sigh. “I couldn’t do it. The moment my dear Guapito repeated the words—I couldn’t help but pour my heart out to him. And I know, if he’d had the words, he’d have poured his little bird heart out to me, too. For all these years, he’s been the guardian of my most precious secrets. The one creature on Earth who knew everything there was to know about me. I—nothing’s ever going to replace that. I’ll miss him more than words can say.”

  
Jack’s voice actually breaks on the last few words, and he has to swipe at his eyes before he can be accused of having actual feelings or something equally embarrassing. He’s been great at maintaining the unshakable queen image that became his trademark, he’s not about to lose it at fifty.

Guapo truly was his life, though: the one constant, the one friend who never rejected him, never relegated him to second place. Picturing life without him is—Jack shudders and, without bothering to wipe his nose first, shoves his face in Will’s cashmere-clad neck.

  
This time, instead of calling him an animal, Will pulls Jack in tight, kisses the top of his head, and pretends he doesn’t know Jack’s crying even though it can’t take long for the tears to soak through his sweater. It doesn’t take the pain away by any mean but it does, at least, make it just a little bit easier to bear.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and reviews make me want to keep writing ;)


End file.
